Posted 11/04/08 at 11:54:30 AM by Paul Lilly

Whether you place the blame on ISPs for not upgrading their infrastructure or the small number of bandwidth hogs clogging up the pipes (with all legal content, of course), metered bandwidth looks to become the norm rather than the exception. AT&T becomes the latest to jump on board and will begin trials for metered internet access for subscribers living in Reno, Nevada. But that's not the half of it.

Those of you who were outraged at Comcast for having put a 250GB cap in place might want to stop reading now. According to a letter filed electronically with the FCC, AT&T attorney Jack Zimmerman says the size of his company's bandwidth caps will vary based on the service level. Customers on the 768kbps plan will be hit the hardest and have just 20GB to work with, while 6mbps subscribers will be capped at 150GB, or 100GB less than what Comcast is allowing. Should customers go over their service level's limit, a $1 per gigabyte charge will be assessed to the monthly bill.

Customers who want no part of the caps can choose to cancel their service and have their early termination fee waived. We imagine there are readily available alternatives in Reno, but should AT&T's test run spread to other areas, finding another ISP may not always be as easy. AT&T boasts 14.7 million subscribers, enough to rank the company as the largest ISP in the U.S.

Is AT&T going to far? Hit the jump and sound off.

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53

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Comcast, at&t, bandwidth cap, metered internet

Posted 10/23/08 at 10:38:57 AM by Paul Lilly

Comcast is in the news again, but this time it has nothing to do with throttling connections or those ever-unpopular bandwidth limits. Instead, the ISP has announced it is rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 'wideband' internet service, giving (er, selling) subscribers up to 50Mbps downstream and 10Mpbs upstream.

At those speeds, Comcast puts itself nearly on par with Verizon's FiOS service, who's top-tier package offers the same downstream but twice the upstream at 20Mbps. But a key difference lies in compatibility. DOCSIS 3.0 means that cable operators don't have to install new lines and instead can use existing infrastructure.

The Extreme 50 service, as Comcast is calling it, will run $140 per month for residential subscribers and $190 per month for businesses. According to Comcast, Extreme 50 customers will be able to download a high-definition movie in about 16 minutes. Initial availability is limited to subscribers in parts of New England, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, with a planned expansion to more than 10 million homes and business by the end of the year.

Would you be willing to pay $140 per month for 50Mpbs/10Mbps? Hit the jump and let us know.

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13

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Internet, Comcast, bandwidth

Posted 09/07/08 at 06:06:05 PM by Justin Kerr

In a seemingly never ending battle with the FCC, Comcast is back on the offensive. The cable giant is looking to overturn the ruling reached on August 1st which found them in violation of the FCC’s network neutrality principles. Comcast was mandated to immediately cease any packet shaping initiatives and to publically disclose the full extent of its traffic blocking policies. Experts close to the case have chimed in on the issue and it would appear as though news of the appeal wasn’t all that surprising. Comcast has become famous in legal circles for appealing any decision it doesn’t agree with, and this case is no exception. Comcast firmly believes that packet shaping of peer-to-peer traffic is a legitimate and reasonable means of managing network traffic and intends to defend that contention to the bitter end. Despite the impending appeal, Comcast has agreed to abide by the FCC mandates until a new verdict is reached. Comcast’s packet shaping activities have been in the spotlight since late 2007 when the Associated Press revealed proof that Comcast was blocking P2P traffic during peak hours. The FCC case was seen as a test run help to determine if it could enforce its network neutrality principles. I’m sure most Maximum PC readers are rooting for the FCC, but since so little precedent in a case like this; the outcome of an appeal could still go either way.

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3

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Software, lawsuit, ISP, Comcast, P2P, fcc, filtering, hardware, sandvine, internet traffic

Posted 08/29/08 at 12:26:30 PM by Paul Lilly

Comcast made it official today by announcing it will introduce bandwidth caps to all residential customers starting on October 1, 2008. The ISP describes the 250GB per month cap as "an extremely large amount of data," noting that a large majority of customers will never cross it. Or will they?

Comcast says that the 250GB cap is enough to send about 50 million emails, download 62,500 songs, download 125 standard-definition movies, or upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos. Put into that kind of perspective, 250GB seems plenty for all but the most bandwidth hungry users, who tend to be up to no good anyway. The ISP also notes that the bandwidth cap represents the same policy that has already been in place, except with more explicit numbers outlining what is and isn't allowed.

"As part of our preexisting policy, we will continue to contact the top users of hour high-speed internet service and ask them to curb their usage," the company told ArsTechnica. "If a customer uses more than 250GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use."

Previous speculation of Comcast's impending bandwidth cap pointed towards a $15 fee for every 10GB customers go over the limit, but a cursory glance at the company's FAQ page doesn't appear to make mention of overage penalties.

What are your thoughts on Comcast's decision to cap bandwidth?

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45

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Internet, ISP, Comcast, bandwidth cap

Posted 08/21/08 at 10:47:03 AM by Chris Moody

Comcast is not about to stop in its attempts to manage heavy users on its network after the hand slap from the Federal Communications Commission that found that Comcast had improperly blocked peer-to-peer programs.

Bloomburg reports that Comcast now has plans to slow Internet service to the heaviest users during periods of congestion. The internet speeds for targeted customers will be reduced for periods lasting from 10 minutes to 20 minutes, to keep the service running smoothly for other users.

How much of a slow down? Mitch Bowling, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of online services said it would back down to “a really good DSL experience''.

Internet Service Providers need a way to control bandwidth hogs during peak times in order to keep things profitable. The only other way is to add additional bandwidth that they would never even touch the rest of the time, which comes off their bottom line. Comcast’s first mistake was being sneaky about it and not disclosing the practice to consumers.

I actually like their latest idea, but from the sounds of this, they are about to repeat their second mistake; not defining what constitutes a heavy user and what exactly is this penalty phase with the bandwidth cap? The generalities just make users uneasy. Those same uneasy users will backlash if they unknowingly get caught up in Comcast’s heavy user slowdown, with what they see as reasonable usage. That reasonable usage is completely subjective, unless Comcast chooses to define it.

What do you think? Is Comcast’s latest plan an improvement?

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8

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cable, Comcast, law, fcc, management, bandwidth

Posted 08/06/08 at 03:34:50 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The rumor mills stand vindicated as far as the buzz about Comcast acquiring Daily Candy goes. But the magnitude of the deal is way more than what the initial reports suggested. The popular newsletter that rants about a range of things from lifestyle to fashion has been bought by Comcast for a whopping $125 million. Daily Candy was founded in 2000 and later sold to Pilot Group Ventures for $3 million in 2003 by its founder Dany Levy. Reports suggest that even Viacom was keen on adding Daily Candy to its bouquet of prime internet real estate. Daily Candy’s outgoing owner, Bob Pittman, expects it to turn in $25 million in revenues.

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0

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Software, Internet, Comcast, daily candy, m&a

Posted 07/28/08 at 07:53:47 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The Federal Communications Commission is now going to reign in on Comcast’s controversial practice of hampering peer-to-peer internet traffic. Out of the five FCC commissioners, three have voted, thus far, on whether Comcast is liable for punishment for filtering internet traffic. And all of them want the cable company to be punished, but the punitive order will officially be executed once the remaining members have voted – a mere formality. The FCC doesn’t intend to fine Comcast but merely wants it to abstain from internet traffic filtering altogether.

Comcast has been in the eye of the “network neutrality” storm since August, 2007, when TorrentFreak revealed that the leading cable company was filtering internet traffic. It is rumored that the company utilizes Sandvine hardware for warding off P2P traffic but Comcast has not even acknowledged that it indulges in such practices. Comcast is currently busy defending itself in a class-action suit which alleges that the company’s actual services betray its promises, for it restricts internet access despite promising unshackled service.

This being such a contentious issue, that has invited intense reactions from all corners, you all are expected to set the comments section afire.

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6

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Software, ISP, Comcast, P2P, fcc, filtering, hardware, sandvine, internet traffic

Posted 07/11/08 at 08:15:32 AM by Chris Moody

It sounds like Comcast is about to get it’s hand slapped for blocking P2P file sharing on it’s network. That is good news, as it will send a message about screwing with folks internet access. The funny part is where the message is coming from.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin said he will recommend that the Comcast be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet. "The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers access to the Internet," Martin told The Associated Press. "We found that Comcast's actions in this instance violated our principles."

This is the same Kevin Martin that wants a free but filtered national broadband that we covered previously. Don’t mess with people’s file sharing, but it is a good idea to filter access to information. (we really want our pr0n). Ah, the duplicity of politicians, even appointed ones. It’s kind of like the obnoxious Uncle from when you were a kid. He’d point at your shoes so he could whack you upside the head while you were looking at your feet.

More on Martin's order for Comcast after the jump.

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0

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Comcast, P2P, fcc, filtering, Kevin Martin, network neutrality